I was a huge Troma fan as a kid. You know how a lot of kids aren't allowed to watch R-rated movies? Well, I wasn't either- same as you. But I found a way around that in 2 ways. Both of which revolved around my owning my own TV/VCR. I got it on one of my Birthdays as a present and got I used it all the time. Got it plugged into the cable and could watch anything on HBO and Cinemax that I wanted to any time I wanted to. I saw so much violence and nudity, if they knew even 1/4th of what I was exposed to- they probably would have sued someone (well... they sure would have wanted to).
What this really means is that, as a kid, I was watching children's shows at the same time I was also watching horror movies and those HBO "Sex on TV" documentaries. Can you imagine what my personality was like? Childish and maybe a little mature at the same time. One thing's for sure- my sort of sexual kinks were developed at a young age (but you don't exactly need to know about that, do you?). My parents also had a lot of R-rated movies on VHS. So, again, as long as my Mom didn't want to watch Roadhouse (1989) while I had it in my room. This is one of the reasons I like so many different kinds of movies and TV. And why my sense of humor is all over the place- it was informed at a very young age. And re-informed many times. Every time I saw something new and funny.
Not to mention the balance (or imbalance) of heavy, adult-oriented violence with cartoonish, child-oriented violence, and the family films light or nil on nudity and the really kind of cruddy "after dark" stuff, especially shown on Cinemax (lots of it with plots involving sports or martial arts), heavy on "bad" language and nudity. Looking back on these days, it really was the only time that I remained open-minded about pornography and heavy nudity on television. There was still well-defined lines, a healthy separation from family and adult entertainment, and a wonderfully free spirit about the whole thing.
Today- kids are sold sex by the bucketful. Girls Gone Wild and Maxim Magazine culture pander directly to the less-than-20 crowd. And the spirit is no longer free and easy. It's genuinely oppressive and heavy handed. And has already started to turn the culture incredibly dark and tense. Just look at how films like Hostel and Turistas couldn't be made without Girls Gone Wild. And E!'s wretched Wild On program- showing teenagers and college students going to exotic hot spots around the world, getting super-pissed on alcohol, and watching women take their shirts off. These people are just walking around life with big Friday the 13th Victim #'s and Bullseyes on their backs.
So, yeah, I look back on the late '80s and early '90s in video-released horror and comedy / sports movies (almost all heavy on nudity) with a real fondness. The kind that makes me look like a serious hypocrite when people hear my cultural point of view on today's status. I imagine my point of view is the same as many people who grew up in the early 80's, when there was also a flood of sexed-up trash. Much of it in the mainstream (Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Last American Virgin, many-etc's).
How does that bring anyone to this movie? Well, just look at Troma. They were a leading distributer of sex comedies in the '70s and '80s with stuff like The First Turn On and Squeeze Play. And, though it usually gets the tag of being a horror movie- 1984's awful The Toxic Avenger, which was actually so successful, it launched Troma into mainstream attention. Even begetting a children's TV-show which I remember being a fan of- Toxic Crusaders. And yes, it aired on the basic ABC/CBS/NBC block of channels on Saturday mornings at one point. How's that for exposure?
Troma were mostly distributers and not the actual makers of the movies they became famous for. President Lloyd Kaufman did direct Avenger and a few others (incredibly odious things like Terror Firmer and Tromeo & Juliet). But their bread and butter seems to come from movies they released straight-to-video. A few were European-made films, such as 1989's Evil Clutch and this. There's a big difference between these two titles, though. With Grannies, it's easy to see the intelligence and ambition in it, and the writer's intentions are more amusing and noble than Clutch, which can only be described as batshit (aka- insane) and utterly confusing (aka- "WtF?").
Grannies starts as smart and vicious social satire, painting every member of the Remmington Family as evil, nasty, unlikable, and ugly. But then, when the Aunt characters go rabid and start munching on them- I find myself so full of sympathy for them, it practically spews out of every pore. I was just thinking yesterday- who would I have wanted to die(?). And I couldn't really pick any of them. I wonder if this same approach would have a similar result if the people shown here were picked from today's lot of socially irresponsible and selfish, morally filthy pigs. In the case of Hostel, I say- "let them die." So... perhaps times really have changed (a lot). For the worse in some ways and better in others. I guess people by and large feel more hopeful today (though with the economy being the way it is- that's pure insanity).
But after the first 35 or so minutes, the movie kind of goes a little too intense and becomes a strange "survival horror" film. Though it does retain a little bit of that Murder by Death or Clue-type vibe (2 other movies I loved as a kid). One by one they die and you sort of have to count up in your head who is and isn't alive, or, who's down and who's to-go. This could also be attributed to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Which from what I remember (reading it in school), was also pretty violent (or graphically descriptive in its' violence or death "scenes"). The tone changes so much after the first half hour. It's not even the creepy kind of thing we see in the scene of Alice going to the gate (a damn cool atmosphere moment). More like an incredibly freaky version of a bunch of people on a deadly game of paintball (with the "hide and seek" set-up of most of the murders).
Although, all said and done, this film's resemblance to 1982's Creepshow, which perfected this balance between grotesque and blackly humorous, ensures that the shift kind of works even though it shocked me. 1973's Theater of Blood is another possible influence. Especially when you consider most of the victims are over 35 years old. The gore effects and the nature of the transformations echo 1985's Demons, and since there is a Birthday theme that directly unites both, its sequel, Demons 2 (1986). Stuart Gordon also made a film that's quite a bit like this, 1986's Dolls, also taking place in a castle-like mansion house, and where the victims are being singled out because of how not-exactly-"nice" they are.
I just have to say to myself- God, those first 35 minutes were fun. After that, it's never as-fun again. But, I was a gore fan before I was a dark-comedy fan. Which of course makes the fact that nearly all the blood and gore has been edited out of all U.S. prints more bothersome. American gore fans may never know of the delights of the film's Uncut European version, because the quality of the effects is stunning. Leading to at least one of the most disturbing and vicious things I've ever seen in a horror movie in my life.
What this really means is that, as a kid, I was watching children's shows at the same time I was also watching horror movies and those HBO "Sex on TV" documentaries. Can you imagine what my personality was like? Childish and maybe a little mature at the same time. One thing's for sure- my sort of sexual kinks were developed at a young age (but you don't exactly need to know about that, do you?). My parents also had a lot of R-rated movies on VHS. So, again, as long as my Mom didn't want to watch Roadhouse (1989) while I had it in my room. This is one of the reasons I like so many different kinds of movies and TV. And why my sense of humor is all over the place- it was informed at a very young age. And re-informed many times. Every time I saw something new and funny.
Not to mention the balance (or imbalance) of heavy, adult-oriented violence with cartoonish, child-oriented violence, and the family films light or nil on nudity and the really kind of cruddy "after dark" stuff, especially shown on Cinemax (lots of it with plots involving sports or martial arts), heavy on "bad" language and nudity. Looking back on these days, it really was the only time that I remained open-minded about pornography and heavy nudity on television. There was still well-defined lines, a healthy separation from family and adult entertainment, and a wonderfully free spirit about the whole thing.
Today- kids are sold sex by the bucketful. Girls Gone Wild and Maxim Magazine culture pander directly to the less-than-20 crowd. And the spirit is no longer free and easy. It's genuinely oppressive and heavy handed. And has already started to turn the culture incredibly dark and tense. Just look at how films like Hostel and Turistas couldn't be made without Girls Gone Wild. And E!'s wretched Wild On program- showing teenagers and college students going to exotic hot spots around the world, getting super-pissed on alcohol, and watching women take their shirts off. These people are just walking around life with big Friday the 13th Victim #'s and Bullseyes on their backs.
So, yeah, I look back on the late '80s and early '90s in video-released horror and comedy / sports movies (almost all heavy on nudity) with a real fondness. The kind that makes me look like a serious hypocrite when people hear my cultural point of view on today's status. I imagine my point of view is the same as many people who grew up in the early 80's, when there was also a flood of sexed-up trash. Much of it in the mainstream (Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Last American Virgin, many-etc's).
How does that bring anyone to this movie? Well, just look at Troma. They were a leading distributer of sex comedies in the '70s and '80s with stuff like The First Turn On and Squeeze Play. And, though it usually gets the tag of being a horror movie- 1984's awful The Toxic Avenger, which was actually so successful, it launched Troma into mainstream attention. Even begetting a children's TV-show which I remember being a fan of- Toxic Crusaders. And yes, it aired on the basic ABC/CBS/NBC block of channels on Saturday mornings at one point. How's that for exposure?
Troma were mostly distributers and not the actual makers of the movies they became famous for. President Lloyd Kaufman did direct Avenger and a few others (incredibly odious things like Terror Firmer and Tromeo & Juliet). But their bread and butter seems to come from movies they released straight-to-video. A few were European-made films, such as 1989's Evil Clutch and this. There's a big difference between these two titles, though. With Grannies, it's easy to see the intelligence and ambition in it, and the writer's intentions are more amusing and noble than Clutch, which can only be described as batshit (aka- insane) and utterly confusing (aka- "WtF?").
Grannies starts as smart and vicious social satire, painting every member of the Remmington Family as evil, nasty, unlikable, and ugly. But then, when the Aunt characters go rabid and start munching on them- I find myself so full of sympathy for them, it practically spews out of every pore. I was just thinking yesterday- who would I have wanted to die(?). And I couldn't really pick any of them. I wonder if this same approach would have a similar result if the people shown here were picked from today's lot of socially irresponsible and selfish, morally filthy pigs. In the case of Hostel, I say- "let them die." So... perhaps times really have changed (a lot). For the worse in some ways and better in others. I guess people by and large feel more hopeful today (though with the economy being the way it is- that's pure insanity).
But after the first 35 or so minutes, the movie kind of goes a little too intense and becomes a strange "survival horror" film. Though it does retain a little bit of that Murder by Death or Clue-type vibe (2 other movies I loved as a kid). One by one they die and you sort of have to count up in your head who is and isn't alive, or, who's down and who's to-go. This could also be attributed to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Which from what I remember (reading it in school), was also pretty violent (or graphically descriptive in its' violence or death "scenes"). The tone changes so much after the first half hour. It's not even the creepy kind of thing we see in the scene of Alice going to the gate (a damn cool atmosphere moment). More like an incredibly freaky version of a bunch of people on a deadly game of paintball (with the "hide and seek" set-up of most of the murders).
Although, all said and done, this film's resemblance to 1982's Creepshow, which perfected this balance between grotesque and blackly humorous, ensures that the shift kind of works even though it shocked me. 1973's Theater of Blood is another possible influence. Especially when you consider most of the victims are over 35 years old. The gore effects and the nature of the transformations echo 1985's Demons, and since there is a Birthday theme that directly unites both, its sequel, Demons 2 (1986). Stuart Gordon also made a film that's quite a bit like this, 1986's Dolls, also taking place in a castle-like mansion house, and where the victims are being singled out because of how not-exactly-"nice" they are.
I just have to say to myself- God, those first 35 minutes were fun. After that, it's never as-fun again. But, I was a gore fan before I was a dark-comedy fan. Which of course makes the fact that nearly all the blood and gore has been edited out of all U.S. prints more bothersome. American gore fans may never know of the delights of the film's Uncut European version, because the quality of the effects is stunning. Leading to at least one of the most disturbing and vicious things I've ever seen in a horror movie in my life.
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